Photo Gallery: Vikings descend on the Shetland Islands

Annual festival celebrates the Viking influence in the Scottish islands and culminates with up to 1,000 men in costume torching a longboat.

Members of the 2013 'Jarl Squad' take part in the annual Up Helly Aa festival which culminates in the burning of a Viking Galley in Lerwick, Shetland Islands on January 29, 2013. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and has employed this theme in the festival since 1870. The event culminates with up to 1,000 'guizers' (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat.